Sana'a Yemen (via Creative Commons)

The plan - which will expand Yemen's social security network and provide monetary assistance to some 500,000 needy families - is intended to diffuse anti-government sentiments, specifically amongst the nation's high population of unemployed citizens.
 
Saleh said he would also institute tuition exemptions for Yemeni students to combat unemployment amongst college graduates, and ordered the government to exempt students from paying tuition for the remainder of the 2010-2011 academic year.

More than 50 percent of Yemeni graduates are currently unemployed.

In the face of burgeoning protests across the region - including the mid-January departure of Tunisia's president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and the current demonstrations against Egyptian President Mubarak - Saleh hopes his reforms will quell Yemen's anti-government demonstrations.

However, it is unlikely that the demonstrators will be satisfied by their president's reforms, according to Death and Taxes Magazine.

Analogous to other autocrats in the region, Saleh has been in power in Yemen for over 32 years. Unemployment in Tunisia was a key issue in the protests which toppled Ben Ali.

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